Sports

Kiszla: Orton victory Sunday will put Tebow, Elway on trial

The Broncos are choking. Can Tim Tebow save them? Better not fail, or else Tebow will make his boss look dumb and cheap.

If Denver can't beat Kansas City and outcast quarterback Kyle Orton with an NFL playoff berth at stake, then it will be the costliest fumble of Broncos executive John Elway's career and rank among the worst blunders in franchise history.

It smelled like desperation at Dove Valley on Monday afternoon, so I figured it was a good time to ask Denver coach John Fox:

Is Fox confident the better quarterback will be on his side against the Chiefs?

"I know we made that decision," replied Fox, well aware his team cut Orton in late November, banking $2.6 million in payroll savings with the transaction. "As I would say about anything moving forward, time will tell."

Now Orton could really make Denver pay.

Should his heroics cost the Broncos a spot in the Super Bowl tournament, there would be no positive way to spin it. In order to be penny-wise, Elway, Fox and general manager Brian Xanders would get pounded for being so dang foolish as to set up Orton for sweet revenge against a city that never particularly liked him.

For Tebow, the stakes could not be higher.

Choke against the Chiefs and Tebow would make Broncos owner Pat Bowlen appear cheap, cheap, cheap.

While the Tebow faithful will forgive their beloved quarterback for any football sin and try to ignore the sobering fact Denver has failed to score 20 points in seven of his 10 starts since taking over for Orton, it might be wise to remember: Tebow is not Elway's quarterback, but a first-round selection of former coach Josh McDaniels.

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Tebow has earned the right to be a starter in Denver at the outset of next season. But I don't like his long-term prospects for holding the job should he stumble against Kansas City.

This is a must-win game for Tebow, unless he wants to trade his Superman's cape for the shadow of doubt certain to follow him from now through the NFL draft, as Elway carefully evaluates every quarterback prospect.

Fair or not, Orton was run out of town as a loser with a 12-21 record as the team's starting quarterback.

So, what would that make Tebow should he get whupped by Orton, causing another all-too-familiar collapse by the Broncos late in the season?

The braintrust of Elway, Fox and Xanders made a $2.6 million wager Orton didn't possess the skills or moxie to return and haunt Denver. Know what? The oddsmakers in Las Vegas agree, having established the Broncos as 3½-point favorites to defeat Kansas City.

But you know Orton would like nothing better than to force Broncomaniacs to take his name in vain one more time.

"I wouldn't doubt it if Kyle Orton delivers the speech (to the Chiefs) the night before the game," former Broncos safety Nick Ferguson said. "He wants to come back to prove to John Elway, the fans of Denver and John Fox that you guys chose the wrong quarterback."

For a Hall of Famer, Elway has displayed surprisingly little instinct for handling a sticky quarterback situation during his first year calling signals for the front office in Denver.

From the failure to trade Orton on the eve of training camp to an obvious reluctance to let Tebow play until the booing from the home crowd grew too loud to ignore, from allowing a veteran quarterback to assist an AFC West rival in the name of saving a few bucks to being browbeaten into giving Tebow a lukewarm endorsement for 2012 after the magic of a winning streak was gone, Elway has seemed uncommonly indecisive for the fearless gunslinger we remember wearing No. 7.

Rockies are on pace to lose 93 games this seasonThe Rockies lost three of four in St. Louis and are on pace to lose 93 games as they come home for a three-game series with Seattle before going back on the road again to face Washington.